Dr Sun Yatsen - Memorial in Nanjing, China

中华民国军政府大元帅孙中山

Her foreigner friend Israel Epstein, who wrote a biography of her, described her as an outstanding woman of the 20th century. The subtitles of the exhibition, ‘In the Same Boat’, ‘Patriotic Sentiments’ and ‘Moments in Everyday Life’, as well as the valuable collection on loan from the China Soong Ching Ling Foundation, will help visitors understand the spirit and virtue of this extraordinary woman,” Mr Tsang said.


After graduating from Wesleyan College in the US in 1913, Madam Soong reunited with her family in Japan and later took over from her sister Soong Ailing as Dr Sun Yat-sen’s secretary. Despite fierce opposition from her family, she married Dr Sun in Japan on October 25, 1915. She stood by Dr Sun through thick and thin and for better or worse throughout the revolutionary years. She was not only Dr Sun’s most reliable assistant, but also a faithful companion and a comrade-in-arms. Dr Sun died of illness in Beijing on March 12, 1925, 10 years after their marriage.


After Dr Sun Yat-sen’s death, Madam Soong insisted on carrying out her late husband’s “Three Principles of the People” and the three cardinal policies of “allying with the USSR, allying with (Chinese) Communists, and helping peasants and workers.” In 1926, she helped plan the relocation of the capital from Guangzhou to Wuhan. In 1927, she publicly denounced some members of the Kuomintang for abandoning Dr Sun’s political ideas. From 1927 to 1931, Madam Soong lived in the Soviet Union and Europe, where she spent her time conducting research and exploring possible directions for China’s revolutionary future.

When Japan invaded China in 1930s, Madam Soong called for the establishment of an anti-Japanese national united front. In 1938, she founded the China Defence League in Hong Kong and garnered international support for China’s war against Japanese invasion. She was also active in raising funds for wartime relief. After the war, Madam Soong renamed the China Defence League the China Welfare Institute and conducted pioneering work on cultural education and social services for the women and children of China.

我們國父，首創革命，革命血如花，推翻了專制，建設了共和，產生了民主中華。民國新成，國事如麻，國父詳加 計劃，重新改革中華。三民主義，五權憲法，真理細推求，一世的辛勞，半生的奔走，為國家犧牲奮鬥。國父精神 ，永垂不朽，如同青天白日，千秋萬世長留。民生凋敝，國步艱難，禍患猶未已；莫散了團體，休灰了志氣，大家 要互相勉勵。國父遺言，不要忘記，革命尚未成功，同志仍須努力



1924年6月16日，孙中山主持黄埔军校开学典礼
7th anniversary of the victory of the October Revolution in Russia.
1924年11月7日，孙中山出席广州庆祝苏联十月革命胜利七周年大会
Dr. Sun Yat-sen and Mme Soong Ching Ling headed for Beijing in November 1924.
1924年11月孙中山与宋庆龄在北上途中

1、Dr. Sun Yat-sen inspected troops in Guangdong.
孙中山巡视广东各军
2、On December 31, 1924, Dr. Sun Yat-sen was greeted by Beijing citizens in front of the Tiananmen Gate.
1924年12月31日，北京民众在天安门前欢迎孙中山

1、Dr. Sun Yat-sen died of liver cancer in Beijing on March 12, 1925.
1925年3月12日，孙中山在北京逝世
2、Dr. Sun Yat-sen’s will.
孙中山遗嘱

1、Mme Soong Ching Ling and Sun Ke in the mourning hall (Sun Ke, son of Dr. Sun, October 20, 1891 – September 13, 1973).
宋庆龄与孙科在孙中山行辕灵堂 （孙科，孙中山之子，1891年10月20日——1973年9月13日）
2、The masses mourned the loss of Dr. Sun Yat-sen in front of the Union Hospital.
北京民众在协和医院门前哀悼孙中山
On April 2 1925, Dr. Sun Yat-sen’s coffin was moved to the Biyun Temple for temporary rest. Hundreds of thousands of people stood along the streets to pay their respect while the coffin was moved through the Xidan Archway.
1925年4月2日，北京民众哀送孙中山灵柩移往碧云寺暂厝途中经过西单牌楼时情形
Upon the death of Dr. Sun, the KMT flew its flag at half-mast on the Altar to the God of Land and Grain, central park, Beijing.
国民党在北京中央公园社稷坛为孙中山降半旗致哀
Mdme Soong Ching Ling kept vigil beside Dr. Sun’s coffin in the Biyun Temple.
宋庆龄在北京碧云寺为孙中山守灵

1、Memorial services for Dr. Sun held by overseas Chinese and American friends in New York City.
纽约华侨与美国友人悼念孙中山
2、On June 1, 1929, Dr. Su Yat-sen’s coffin was moved into Zhongshan Mausoleum in Nanjing.
1929年6月1日，孙中山灵柩移入南京中山陵

1、In March 1938, Mao Zedong (December 26, 1893—September 9, 1976) addressed the meeting in commemoration of the 13th anniversary of Dr. Sun Yat-sen’s death in Yan’an.
1938年3月，毛泽东等在延安纪念孙中山逝世十三周年大会上（毛泽东，1893.12.26——1976.9.9）
2、A meeting on the occasion of the 90th birthday of Dr. Sun Yat-sen was held in Beijing in November 1956.
1956年11月，北京举行孙中山诞辰九十周年纪念大会

1、Zhou Enlai (March 5, 1898—January 8, 1976), He Xiangning (July 16, 1879—September 1, 1972), Shen Junru (January 2, 1875—June 11, 1963) and many others paid their respects to Dr. Sun Yat-sen in the Zhongshan Memorial Hall of the Biyun Temple in Beijing.
周恩来、何香凝、沈钧儒等参谒北京碧云寺中山纪念堂
（周恩来，1898.3.5——1976.1.8 、沈钧儒，1875.1.2——1963.6.11、何香凝，1879.7.16――1972.9.1）
2、Zhou Enlai delivered a speech at the celebration on the 100th anniversary of Dr. Sun Yat-sen’s birthday.
周恩来在孙中山诞辰一百周年纪念大会上讲话

Sun Yat-sen was born in Cui-heng Village, Zhongshan, Guangdong Province, China on November 12, 1866. He was brought up in a culture of a Guangdong peasant village where he acquired only a rudimentary education. Before the age of thirteen, he was taken to join his emigrant elder brother, Sun Mei, in Hawaii, where he attended missionary schools and developed interests in both government and medicine, and most importantly, his feeling for Christianity. Four years later, when he returned to his hometown, he shocked his family and the entire village by deliberately desecrating the wooden image of the local deity.

In 1883, when he was seventeen, he went to Hong Kong to continue his education in English, and his feeling for Christianity grew even stronger. In 1884 at the age of eighteen, he decided to formally embrace Christianity. He was baptized in Hong Kong by Dr Charles Hager, an American Congregationalist missionary.

During 1894 to 1896, he organized the Hsing Chun Hui in Honolulu, attempted his first revolutionary uprising in Guangdong, and, as a consequence of these activities, became a fugitive on three continents. However, he gained international notoriety from the attempt by the Chinese legation in London to kidnap him.


In the dramatic kidnapping episode in London, Sun reported praying constantly for God's help. In his letter to Pastor Chu he wrote,

"I was saved by God now I believe in God more than ever I am like the prodigal son and the lost sheep: I owe everything to the great favor of God. Through the Way of God I hope to enter into the Political Way. I hope you will not cease to write to me about the Way of God."

Most importantly, the kidnapping episode and the twelve-day imprisonment strengthened Sun Yat-sen's self-confidence and sense of dedication. It convinced him that God has forestalled his enemies to preserve him for some high purpose. He was thus transformed from a comparatively insignificant Cantonese rebel into a well publicized and extremely confident enemy of the Manchu regime.

And then there is Sun Yat-sen. Few historical figures can be more interesting than the man who is considered to be the father of modem China. He left his footprints not only in China, mainly in Shanghai, but in Singapore and San Francisco as well. He has the distinction of being the only political figure revered by both Taiwan and the Mainland Chinese. The Kuomintang party that he established in 1905 sought to replace the ailing Qing dynasty with democratic leadership, and finally succeeded in 1911.

Born in 1866 to a peasant family in Guangzhou, Sun, at age thirteen, went to live with his elder brother, a prosperous merchant, in Honolulu and here he got his early education. He became a citizen of the United States and was issued an American passport. After graduation from the prestigious Iolani School in 1882, Sun enrolled in Oahu College for further studies. Upon graduation his brother sent him back to China. His American experience was to be of lasting influence.

Back home, he became greatly troubled by what he saw as a backward China. He continued his studies that included medicine at the Guangzhou Boji Hospital. He became a medical doctor and practiced medicine in that city briefly in 1893. After the Qing Dynasty rebellion, he became a leader in the Tiandihui revolutionary party. His protégé, Chiang Kai Shek, was also a member.

In 1906 Dr Sun Yat-sen traveled to Singapore to drum up support for his nationalist cause among the Nanyang (overseas Chinese) and was given a villa for his use. It was here that he plotted the overthrow of the 267-year-old Manchu Qing Dynasty in China. Soon, the bungalow became known as the Sun Yat Sen Villa.

In 1910, Sun went from Singapore to San Francisco. He lived in Chinatown briefly and published a radical newspaper there. He then returned to China and took up residence in Shanghai. In 1915 he married Soong Ching Ling, one of the three famous Soong sisters. They were the daughters of the wealthy businessman and missionary Charlie Soong who made a fortune selling Bibles in China. Two dauaghters attended Motyeire School for Girls in Shanghai, and graduated from Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia, United States. Ching Ling's parents greatly opposed the match, as Dr. Sun was 26 years her senior. Her younger sister, May-ling, married Chiang Kai-shek.

All three residences of Sun Yat-sen are worth a visit and give us a vivid perspective of the great Chinese leader. In Singapore it’s called the Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial, a lovely two-storey Victorian-style bungalow with open verandahs at the front and sides. In front of the building, in the centre of the garden, is a seated statue of Sun Yat-sen. Originally built in the 1880s by a wealthy merchant, Boey Chuan Poh, for his wife, the bungalow occupied a site that was part of a sugar plantation owned by John Balestier, the first American consul appointed to Singapore in 1837. It was eventually bought by an overseas Chinese, rubber magnate Teo Eng Hock, a supporter of the Chinese revolutionary cause. The villa was then known as Wan Qing Yuan, which means "a haven of peace in the twilight years".

At present, and until August this year, the former residence will be closed to allow repairs to be carried out, an $800.000 endeavor. The villa was gazetted as a national monument in 1994, and underwent a four-year, $8 million restoration back then before opening as a memorial hall and museum in 2001.

After the successful revolution in China in 1911, the villa fell into disrepair. It was sold to an Indian merchant who left it unoccupied. Then, in 1938, a group of philanthropists bought the building with the purpose of preserving it. In 1942, their plans came to a halt when World War II erupted. Throughout the war the Japanese used the villa as a communications centre. In 1945, it became the headquarters of the Singapore Branch of the Kuomintang. After the end of Kuomintang activities in Singapore, the villa was handed over to the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce to manage.

In San Francisco there are half a dozen places that boast that “Sun Yat-sen lived here.” But there is no mistaking the impressive 14-ft (4-metre) granite statue that stands at the northeast corner of St Mary's Square in Chinatown and bears his name. The sculpture in his honor was commissioned by the federally funded Works Progress Administration and was placed there in 1938. Its well-known sculptor, Benjamin Bufano, also created several other sculptures around the city, often of whimsical animals.

Finally we come to his residence in Shanghai. Located at No. 7 Xiangshan Road, Sun lived here in this Edwardian-era house with his wife Soong Ching Ling from 1918-24. Among the plush Chinese carpets, artwork and gleaming black wood furniture—all supposedly originals despite the house having been looted by the Japanese—is a 1924 picture of Sun and Ching Ling in front of the first aeroplane in China.

It is quite surprising how simply Sun and his wife lived. Visitors are given plastic bags to fit over their shoes and can walk around the two-storey house at will, although the rooms are roped off and entry is not permitted. The house displays include Sun's library of 2,700 books, the popular uniform he designed, his medical instruments, writing brushes and ink stone, various maps and a display of photographs, among them one of him and Ching Ling in Guangzhou.

Sun's books are shelved behind locked glass doors; the titles depict the man he was—“The Monroe Doctrine,” “Problems in the Pacific,” “Democracy and the Empire,” “The history of Old Japan,” “The Imperialist,” “The Problems of Local Government.”

Also a landmark in Shanghai is Soong Ching Ling's house at 1843 Huahai Zhong where she lived after the death of her husband. It too is a museum and is open to the public.

Sun Yat-sen died in 1925. The three Soong sisters became China's most significant political figures of the early 20th century. Each, in her own way, ultimately changed the course of Chinese history. Throughout their lifetimes, each sister followed her own belief in terms of supporting the Nationalist or the Communist Party of China. In the 1930s, Soong Ai-Ling and Mei-Ling were the two richest women in China.

When the Second Sino-Japanese war broke out in 1937, all three got together after a 10 year separation to unite against the Imperial Japanese army. When the Japanese occupied Nanjing, the three sisters moved to Hong Kong.

Soong Ching Ling became the Vice Chairman of the People's Republic of China. On May 16, 1981, two weeks before her death, she was admitted to the Communist Party and was named Honorary President of the People's Republic of China. She is the only person ever to hold this title.

Although Ching Ling remained in Mainland China while Soong Mei-Ling, or Madame Chiang Kai-shek, her younger sister fled to Taiwan with her husband Chiang Kai-shek, both are today quite beloved and memorialised by the public in the mainland for their unique charismas and contribution.